A woman has been defended from backlash after a 12-year-old boy in a wheelchair asked to touch her service dog and, in return, she asked to touch his wheelchair.
The 22-year-old went online to get people's opinions on the matter after the boy's mum shouted at her for not wanting to let someone pet her dog.
She explained that she had 'fainting episodes' and thus had a husky service dog, and while she understood the basic human instinct to pet the pooch, she thought it was pretty clear that people should leave the animal alone.
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The woman explained that her dog wore a big vest which told people 'MEDICAL ALERT SERVICE DOG DO NOT TOUCH'.
For her, the dog is 'basically my medical equipment' as it's able to tell when she's about to have a fainting episode and help.
However, she got some unkind words thrown at her by a child's mother after a 12-year-old in a wheelchair asked to pet the dog and she 'politely declined'.
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Her rather sensible reasoning for saying no was because the dog was 'working and I’d rather not have strangers disturb the working process of my medical equipment'.
The boy asked again and she, again, said no, at which point the kid's mother came over and tried to push the issue.
The woman countered by saying she'd let the 12-year-old pet her dog if she could pet his wheelchair, with the mum immediately getting annoyed and pointing out that it's rude to touch other people's medical equipment.
With her point made but seemingly not understood, the 22-year-old snapped back 'yes, that's the f**king point', getting called an 'a**hole' by the mum in the process.
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She decided to throw the question out to the internet to let them decide and the internet rather clearly said she was in the right.
People praised the woman in her altercation with the mum for 'pointing out her hypocrisy and bad behaviour', even if the mum didn't quite seem to realise this had been pointed out to her.
Someone else said the 22-year-old had been 'quick witted' to think of a response like that which pointed out that this wasn't just a kid being told they weren't allowed to pet a dog.
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They said it was a good demonstration of someone who would 'treat your lifesaving equipment as a toy' while failing to see that distracting the dog with pets (however well deserved) was not a respectful thing to do.
A wheelchair user wrote in to say 'it bugs me to no end when people touch my chair' and they completely understood why the woman didn't want people touching her dog.
Another commenter chipped in to say 'even if the dog wasn't a medical device if the owner says no you leave the dog alone'.
Joe Harker